Whose to blame?...Wireless Advocates/Costco or myself

Anyone who has purchased from Costco probably knows about the extras they give you including a holster. They include it in the bonus with a screen protector. My salesman (who was great BTW) mention this pack as one of the "extras" to make the Costco purchase more attractive. This and the 90 day Costco warranty they include if there is a defect.

Well, the holster seems kind of goofy to me...but I went ahead and used it the other night because I was sitting in a home theater for several hours and wanted to know when my daughter needed to be picked up from a party. I did not want the phone lights, notifications, etc. interrupting the movie experience. Reaching into your pocket, reclined - in jeans is kind of difficult, so what the heck. This is probably the only situation I would have ever considered using this holster.

My first observation was the holster was tight for this phone. My guess is they have a one size fits all (or many models) approach. It does fit though - so I closed the velcro top and watched the movie. I went to check for my phone after the movie and my holster was empty.

My first thought was it had slid down into the side of the chair. I lifted open the leg support on the chair and looked in and saw the flashing green light. When I reached in there, my heart dropped. I could feel the rough broken glass and the end of the phone was distorted and chewed up. I guess when I had pushed the chair back from reclined into regular position the metal arms/spring tentioned mechanism chomped down on it.

I examined the holster and noticed one of the stretchy fabric bands at the bottom had broken away from the enclosure. This made an opening plenty large enough for the phone to pop out of...which it did.

I took the phone to Costco as soon as I could yesterday. The lady at te Wireless Advocates kiosk was really nice and understanding. I had brought everything back except I forgot the wall charger, so I asked if I could just give her the one with a replacement phone since I did not really want to run back home. She said they are pretty strict on that, but I would have to ask the service desk. They said it was fine, but when I got back she said she had some bad news. Her manager (who was not there) said it was unfortunate event, but not something they are liable for...she said she was surprised they were not taking care of it, but I could try the Costco manager. I did. The Costco manager is this mystery person who lives in a box above the store...you cannot actually speak to him...kind of like the great "Oz". The supervisors go back and forth speaking with him. Anyway, I was there probably 30 minutes just waiting. The supervisor went back and even talked to the Wireless Advocates rep. I eventually was left alone long enough I went to check with the Wireless Advocates lady and she said he was only there 30 seconds and asked her the story, which she repeated. I went back and waited again and finally the supervisor appeared. He said sorry, no dice. It was an unfortunate event.

I held up the case again and said "really?! this is your product isn't it? It failed didn't it?". I was pretty unhappy and frankly in disbelief. This is Costco after all. I have seen people hauling in used soiled mattresses that look a century old and trees a full season after they had failed them. This had been a month and it was there product that they had used to sell a phone that clearly failed...yet it was now some unfortunate accident of mine?

I went back to the kiosk and the lady said I can try the WA Manager again tomorrow. Another trip after an hour + wasted in the store, so I will be doing that today.

I'm not familiar with Costco and how they handle their phone department, but considering one needs a membership to purchase from Costco it's a bit surprising they denied you a replacement. My guess is they're saying you "abused the case" by probably "pushing your phone too far" into the holster. That's the only way I can think of them saying their product didn't fail and that it was "user error". I believe you got a faulty holster and I've seen multiple instances where those "one size fits all" holsters fail. They're made with cheap materials and put together in cost cutting ways. I hope you get a new phone through Costco, but if they give you the runaround again I'd contact Motorola. After that I'd contact the manufacturer of the case, see if they'll do anything about it.

I don't have much good to say about Wireless Advocates. They just refused to do anything. The Manager of the WA store in Lehi UT (Chris) questioned my story, like I made it up. He slid his phone into my broken holster to show me how great his fits (I guess?)...problem is, his phone was much, much smaller. He could barely fit mine in even though the package says "Custom fit for your phone". Then he looked at the broken strap and said "this has never happened, if I had heard of this happening before then..." So I am the first ever. Wonderful.

So is this holster to be used, or just tossed? Probably they would admit the latter if pressed on it. Somehow that does not seem like it should be the customer's fault/liability? I am embarrassed I used it, but this was probably the one scenario where I would have (if was dark in the theater

I thought I would make a last try with the Costco manager again. I got to speak to the mystery manager "Allan" after another in-between customer rep spoke to me.
Thru Allan's approval, Costco paid for a new phone. It cost Costco, not Wireless Advocates. Allan went and spoke with WA to see if they could work something out. No one looked very happy after that, so I am guessing WA was not responsive.

He said he would do it this once (Costco) and it would be on their dime. He said buy a better holster, and use Costco American Express. This latter point was brilliant, as he said they will replace electronics - including broken cell phones without any question or issue. Good to know. Thank you Costco.

Gotta love Costco, no other retailer would have done that.
Almost all manufacturers have a policy that if their product fails, they will replace the product but not any damage caused by its failure, especially since it wasn't the holster that crushed the phone.
Glad you got it worked out, I think you owe Costco a good Yelp review or something like that.